Cause of enlargement given fresh boosts

A report on EU enlargement that reaffirms a “firm commitment” to supporting the membership bids by Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey sailed comfortably through the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee today.

Fifty-one MEPs voted in favour of the report with nine abstentions and one vote against. The paper, drafted by German MEP Elmar Brok, also reaffirms the EU’s commitment to accepting Bosnia, Serbia, Albania and Kosovo as members of the bloc at some stage.

On the same day as the vote, Olli Rehn, the EU’s enlargement commissioner, crossed swords with France over EU enlargement.

“Accession negotiations have never in the past been disrupted by stops and starts in the institutional reform process,” he said.

The comments appeared to contradict remarks made last week by France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said that there could be no further enlargement unless the Lisbon treaty came into force.

Johannes Laitenberger, the spokesman for the European Commission’s president, said on 23 June that the EU’s continued use of the Nice treaty to govern its operations does not, from a legal point of view, pose an obstacle to further enlargement.

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Silviya

I absolutely agree that there should not be further enlargement unless the Lisbon Treaty came into force. Otherwise the institutional crisis will become just unbearable and the outcome – unpredictable.
The Treaty of Lisbon MUST come into force for the good of both the Union and the candidate countries!